Amid its ongoing struggle to fill over 400 sworn-­officer vacancies, the Honolulu Police Department has requested a nearly $400 million operating budget to fight crime.

During the City Council’s Budget Committee hearing Tuesday, HPD Police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan laid out budgetary changes his 2,100-person police force expects to face in the 2026 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Logan noted that HPD proposes a $23.8 million increase next fiscal year to its current $366.65 million budget. The 6.5% jump — to a proposed budget of $390.46 million — is due in part to $11.86 million in IT upgrades for things like computers and similar hardware.

But HPD’s budget also indicates a 0.5% decrease in its salaries — a $1.56 million change — from its current $320.89 million to a proposed $319.32 million in 2026, the department’s budget shows.

“And that is due to having no formal union agreements for this current year,” Logan told the Council. “And so we keep the salaries at the current rate.”

The same plan highlights a $13.5 million boost to its equipment budget, though — currently pegged at $364,000 but expected to rise dramatically to $13.88 million.

“As you can see, there is a 3,000% increase (in equipment). This is a confluence of equipment projects that were coming over several years, due to logistic issues as we came out of COVID,” said Logan. “So now we’re catching up with all of those.”

New equipment includes $7.5 million for upgraded radio systems, while approximately $6.3 million will pay for 63 HPD patrol vehicles, he said.

“We don’t like to keep them longer than 10 years, due to the mileage and safety operations for our officers,” Logan said, adding that HPD has a 300-vehicle fleet. “So by the time we purchase the vehicle, put all of the equipment necessary in the vehicle, install the radios, it’s about $100,000 per vehicle, so we’re working towards all of that.”

HPD expects to assume a new $1.8 million tow contract for the city as well, he said.

In July a city-contracted tow company was told it must refund more than $650,000 in extra fees to hundreds of registered vehicle owners on Oahu or see its annual, three-year contract with the city terminated.

At the time, the Department of Customer Services said it determined Aiea-based All Island Wreckers Inc. — also doing business as All Island Towing — committed “inappropriate charges” for towing serv­ices, following an audit of 782 invoices issued between January and June 2023.

“Right now, tow respon­sibilities fall under the Customer Services Department,” Logan said. “But in the future we see that we may have to take over that operation, so this is part of that budget.”

HPD also intends to spend $1 million for a new online firearm application system.

“This came out of a lawsuit that was filed against HPD for the long duration it took to file applications for the permit to acquire a license to carry,” Logan said. “So for that, we’ve incorporated trying to buy the software that will provide a 24/7, 365-(day) operational, online application process for individuals; they will no longer have to come down to the station and wait in line.”

“And then we can transfer those personnel who would be at the window helping individuals to do the background checks and speed up the process,” he added, “so that we can get applications out in 120 days. That doesn’t mean that people can’t go up to the window if they need to, but we’re working towards that.”

As of Feb. 1, HPD’s uniformed vacancies total 435, he noted.

“Currently, we have 110 recruits that are in the training pipeline as we speak,” he said. “We look to have, on July 1, 25 (recruits) entering into the full-time permanent process coming out of the training pipeline into the department, where they count against our (vacancy) numbers.”

He said four police academies run per year, from July to April. “We’re averaging about 25 recruits per class,” he added.

As far as gaining new officers, he noted HPD uses “family and friends” as “the No. 1 way we recruit.”

“So those that are in the department or know someone in the department joins,” he said. “The second one is social media, so advertising on social media is a great avenue for us to recruit.”

“And the third is the hiring bonus, and then fourth and fifth, we work toward various career fairs and other events like that that are out there,” he added.

Civilian vacancies total 176 at HPD, he said.

“We look to fill 19 by the end of this (fiscal year) and fill another 70 in 2026,” Logan explained. “And we have a robust strategy for recruiting our civilians both at Honolulu Community College with our radio technician and vehicle maintenance.”

But many on the Council found HPD’s ongoing vacancies a vexing problem.

Andria Tupola told the police chief that recruiting more police officers “deserves some really hard thought.”

“When I got on to the Council (in 2021), the vacancy rate was 320 officers. Now we’re at 435,” she said. “That year, HPD gave back $18 million; last year HPD gave back $50.1 million. That’s how much has lapsed.”

Tupola said, “It’s really difficult to look at the budget — seeing that there’s increases — knowing that you guys are lapsing so much money, but the moneys are specifically related to the salaries.”

She urged more retention bonuses be implemented at HPD.

“On the uniformed side, the need is dire because these uniformed officers are out there in the community, in the public, many of them covering areas by themselves or with few officers to back them up,” said Tupola. “So not only is it dangerous for the public, but it’s dangerous for the officer.”

“Over the past five years to go from 320 to (435), that’s crazy,” she added. “We’re just increasing every year. … I think the bleed out is obvious.”

Tommy Waters said he wanted “to try to get creative” and “fully fund” all of HPD’s needs.

He suggested shifting funds away from funded yet unfilled police positions — which he believed would not be filled this year — toward more equipment as well as paying nonholiday overtime that’s budgeted at $21.95 million for the current fiscal year and 2026 as well.

“Is that something you’d be open to?” Waters queried.

To that, the police chief said the city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services would have to be involved in those discussions.

“And with those vacancy provisos that we have, we get funded for steady-state operations, and a lot of that is salary-based, of course,” Logan said, adding some of what’s budgeted at HPD is deemed unforeseen. “So we have an operation, like this past year in District 8, there was a significant crime increase related to guns and the younger generation in the Waianae-Nanakuli-Maili area.”

Waters then asked, “Are you saying that you currently use the vacancy savings to fund other priorities like you said?”

In response, Logan said his “No. 2 priority” behind filling HPD’s vacancies is dealing with violent, gun-­related crime on Oahu.

“So, I would use that money for those kinds of projects,” he added.

Meanwhile, HPD’s fiscal year 2026 capital budget earmarks more than $2.17 million for improvements to police headquarters at 801 S. Beretania St. That includes funding a $1.95 million canopy, to be erected over the building’s second-­floor courtyard, in order to “alleviate and address various leak issues” within the building, the CIP budget states.

Likewise, over $2.32 million is slated for improvements to police stations in Kalihi and Kapolei, the budget states.